3rd Annual Geist Erasure Poetry Contest - NOW CLOSED

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PLEASE NOTE: THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED.

What it is:

Erasure poetry begins with an existing piece of text. Letters, words and punctuation are removed—or erased. What is left behind is a new stand-alone poem, one that both complements and gives new meaning to the Erasure Text.

The Erasure Text for the 3rd Annual Geist Erasure Poetry Contest is “Exhibit 37: Hawthorn Branch,” a prose poem from Cottonopolis by Rachel Lebowitz. Cottonopolis was the moniker given to Manchester, England, a manufacturing and economic hub of the British Empire during the Industrial Revolution.

2. Erase! The left­over words and let­ters will form your poem. Do this in any way you like and be creative. The remaining words should take on new shapes and meanings.

3. The ONLY RULE is do not change the order of words or let­ters. You can com­bine left­over words and let­ters how­ever you see fit, just as long as they appear in the same order as in the orig­i­nal text.

4. Shape the text how­ever you like. Or, leave it as is. Add punc­tu­a­tion and cap­i­tal­iza­tion if the spirit moves you.

The air's a lot clearer now there's the war in America. Now the mills are closed and the men work in quarries, breaking rock. Robert's one of them. His feet are cut up. And it's soggy out there on the moors. The ground's so damp, the wet climbs up his shins and he comes home, his pants soaked and that cough still there from all the dust in the mills. His body's not ready for such work, it's half killing him, but what can you do? You have to break rock or pick oakum before the Guardians'll grant relief.

It took a long time before we even asked. We waited till we sold most everything we had. Our books, the clock, our Sunday clothes, my bonnet, the children's shoes, the chairs, the bedstead, even my ring. We got used to sleeping on a bag of shavings on the floor. Thing is, you can get used to almost anything. Not that everybody just waits for things to change. Though there are lots like that, and mostly when you line up, it's quiet, people are just tired and quiet. And you get your soup and your Indian meal and maybe a pair of new clogs or a blanket, and you go back home. Or you go – the women I mean – to the sewing classes, and sit there with hundreds of others, darning and knitting on those benches, to get your eight pence. Or you just up and leave, to America or Australia, or to Yorkshire, there's lots now that've gone to Yorkshire. But in Stalybridge and Ashton, they got mad, they rioted. And here it's like that too, you can feel it in the air, that something could go off, any minute. Sometimes you just see it in the eyes.

The shop round the corner's got nothing in it but a couple of empty jars in the window and a mug of buttermilk on the shelf. Mary went there with me and wrote her name out in the dust.

I don't mean to say people don't help. Some do. People from London help, send blankets and penny stamps. And America, the North, I mean, helps some. They sent us boxes and bags of bacon, bread, rice, corn. Thousands of barrels of flour. That was three months ago, in February, and it was bitter cold, most who met the ship had nothing but holey shawls to wrap round themselves, but still they say four thousand stood out there, and cheered so loud, it most shook the grey from the sky. Though others said the money would have been better spent sending us to America. And not everyone's on the Union side. Some got together and wrote to Lincoln and said we still support you and the fight to end slavery. But others say different and there are arguments out on the streets sometimes. I don't much care, to tell truth. I just want it to end.

Today it was sunny at last. After such rain! On Tuesday it just pelted down and the clouds yesterday were black, whipping across the city. And then today, sun. The singers came out. And the family with their instruments – they've got a fiddle and a pennywhistle. These ones were from Blackburn, they had one of their caps out on the ground, and they played some psalms right near the 'Change. Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?

There was still the wind and the cold sun was shining. The breeze mussed the hair on top of the old man's head. His daughter was singing, her voice kind of thin, but pretty. It got too brisk, so I nodded goodbye and made my way to see my aunt. You know, she doesn't have much left, just her table, but on it, someone, I think maybe her son, Joshua, he's twelve, he'd gone up to the moors, to Kersal Moor. And he'd brought back a hawthorn branch in full bloom. There it was on her table. The white blossoms like cotton fluff. All delicate and resting there, in a pint jar full of water.

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Comments (17)

Erasure Contest Winners?

Have the winners been announced yet? I've not seen a notice yet, either here or on the Geist e-mail list.

If they've not yet been announced, can we know a date for the announcement?

Bob MacKenziemore than 4 years ago

Erasure Winners

The winners of the Erasure contest haven't been announced yet. We're in the process of judging and the winners will be announced in Geist 91, coming in December.

Geist.commore than 4 years ago

Geist erasure contest

Can we add words that are not in the provided passage, Cottonopolis?

Sam Bairdmore than 4 years ago

Geist erasure contest

Hi Sam,

No, you can't use words or letters that don't appear in the selected passage from Cottonopolis.

Geist.commore than 4 years ago

This contest closed?

Hi there, Is this contest closed?

Nanci Leemore than 4 years ago

This contest closed?

The contest runs for another week! Get your entires in by September 30.

Geist.commore than 4 years ago

How to pay?

Hello. If we're submitting through post who do we make the check out to?

Matthewmore than 4 years ago

How to pay?

Hi: please make cheques payable to Geist.

Geist.commore than 4 years ago

Entry fee

Is the $20 entry fee in American or Canadian currency?

D.H.more than 4 years ago

Entry Fee

Thanks so much for your query.

The entry fee is in Canadian dollars.

Geist.commore than 4 years ago

Online Submission, File Name

I was wondering on online submissions, is it ok to have my name as part of file name? Not on the entry itself(word document) but as part of file name

Yasaman Sabersheikhmore than 4 years ago

Format

Would you like for us to reprint the entire text and actually black it out using a highlighter (digitally) or would you simply like for us to rewrite the text. It seems that unless we provide it surrounded by the original text, someone could write anything.

Sean Steelsmore than 4 years ago

Erasure Format

Hi,

Thanks for your question.

No need to reprint the entire text--you can just type out your selection of remaining words.

Answer to US entrants

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your query. Yes, US entrants are considered international and will receive a subscription to the digital edition of Geist, which can be viewed on your desktop computer or any mobile and tablet device.

If you would like to subscribe to the print magazine, please visit this link: www.geist.com/subscribe

Web Editormore than 4 years ago

US entrants

Are entrants from the US considered international? In other words, do we only get a digital copy of the magazine?

Michael Landaumore than 4 years ago

Cottonopolis

This excerpt has just landed Cottonopolis on my to-read list. Looking forward to the contest entries too.